


Apart

by JaneSkylark



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-08-22 10:43:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16596347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneSkylark/pseuds/JaneSkylark
Summary: HP: Post Hogwarts AU Lily is pregnant and knowing the prophecy James and Lily make the difficult decision to separate and for Lily to hide as a muggle away from England while James stays to fight. In progress.





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!

_December 6, 1979_

_England_

“I can’t do it. You’ll have to,” she whispered through tears as she held out her hand to him.

He took her hand in his. Clasping it between his two and looked down.

\--  
Earlier that day

Rain pounded on the windows and gusts of wind blew tree branches alongside the room making long scratching noises from the outside. It was getting later in the day and Lily rummaged through her closet pulling out sweaters and pants.

“I picked up the IDs. They took longer this morning than I was expecting since you didn’t want them spelled. They’re in my purse or do you want yours now?” She asked. She had a green dress in her hands and she debated whether or not she should take it.

“I can’t go with you,” James spoke quietly from the bed as he watched Lily pack. She placed the dress back on the closet rod and picked James’ navy cardigan. She removed it from its hanger, folded it and walked to the bed where she placed it neatly in her suitcase next to her Hogwarts scarf.

Lily turned towards him slowly, “What do you mean?”

He looked up at her. His eyes fierce. “Lily, I can’t go with you.”

Lily shook her head as she took in his meaning, shocked. “You can’t be serious.”

James rose from the bed and caught her hands in his. Grasping them tightly. “Lily.”

Tears leaked from her eyes as she shut them fiercely shaking her head back and forth. “You want us to separate.”

James looked down and caressed her hands with his own and then slowly brought them up to her face crossing her neck until they moved back and forth across her cheeks. She opened her eyes as she pressed her cheek into his hand. “Lily, I can’t leave them and…” he trailed off.

She nodded. “You’re worried they can’t do it without you.”

He wrapped his arms around her and rested his head against hers. “I don’t know that but I can’t risk them failing. There’s too much at stake. I have to stay to fight.” Choking on the words that were too bitter to speak. Words he was too terrified to speak lest they become real.

“You could…” Lily began but then stopped. The tears fell hard now and she couldn’t see through them. James ran his fingers along her cheeks brushing them away as they fell. He kissed her forehead softly.

She nodded her head fiercely. She sniffed several times as she regained control and wiped her fingers across her cheeks. “Okay, then this is what we’ll do. We’ll separate,” she spoke softly and nodded. “I can still get everyone together over the next few days and I can say goodbye. We can explain.”

James began shaking his head quickly. “No.”

“No?” Lily asked unsure of what he meant.

“No goodbyes. If I’m not going with you then we need to do this as quickly as possible. I want you far away before anyone knows anything. I want you to finish packing,” he paused before finishing, “and then leave immediately.”

He went to the suitcase and pulled the Hogwarts scarf out. Lily’s eyes went to it and she saw him run his fingers through it. “You can’t take this,” he whispered, “there can’t be any traces.”

“Leave immediately? You mean now? Tonight?” Tears welled in her eyes as the realization sank in further and she started to shake her head. Her throat was thick and she wanted to say more but the reality of the situation and what James wanted was catching up with her. She would be separated from him. This would be the last moments they shared for who knew how long or perhaps even for…she didn’t finish the thought. She couldn’t. She swallowed deeply.

James returned by her side and brushed her tears away and kissed her cheeks. He grasped her arms strongly. “This has to work. So, we have to move quickly. I can’t risk anything happening to you so you have to leave as soon as possible. We can’t risk it, Lily.” James buried his face in her neck and she smoothed his hair down, running her fingers through it while she wept.

They stayed that way with their arms wrapped tightly around one another, rocking back and forth and kissing slowly.

\--

“I can’t do it. You’ll have to,” she whispered through tears as she held out her hand to him.

He took her hand in his. Clasping it between his two and looked down. “It’s only a ring, Lily. We’re still married even if you aren’t wearing it,” he whispered as he took the ring in his two fingers and slid the gold band from her finger. Then he reached around his own neck unclasping the chain that hung there and placed the band through it before re-clasping it and letting it fall to his chest.

Lily’s hand went immediately to it as she rested her hand over her ring and his heart, together as one.

“Will you take me to the station?

James shook his head. “No, I shouldn’t know anything…” he trailed off as he picked up her suitcase and opened the door before setting it down again and turning towards her. “I love you.” He grabbed her and kissed her hard. “We’ll be together again. I promise.”

Promises meant little now during these times but she appreciated it and found herself clinging to it. She rested her hand on his cheek as they both closed their eyes. “I love you too.”  
\--

_James, I only left you hours ago but I feel sick. Even though I’m taking breaths and my feet move me forward, my heart doesn’t feel like it’s beating. I want to return, I want to say that we’re making a mistake but I know that we’re not. Thank you for being strong. Thank you for being able to make this decision. I know I couldn’t. I know how difficult it was for you to stay behind, how difficult it was for you to watch me walk away._

Lily closed the journal as she heard the announcement for her plane. She stood and collected her bag. Unsure of when she would return she lingered by the window a moment, watching as heavy rain fell on the dark night before turning and taking her first steps in a long journey, away from England.


	2. 2

_December 7, 1979_

_England_

Rain fell down in large drops across the windows made gray from the dirt that covered them from the outside. The mood in the room was somber. The chairs were circled together in the middle while the couches and ottoman served as outliers on the edges. No one spoke for several minutes. Finally, James had enough and he stood from his chair unable to make eye contact with anyone. He turned around and faced Sirius who stood in the corner glaring at him. He turned back around quickly at the group and forced his hands into his pockets. His back hunched forward as he prepared himself.

“James, we’re just shocked is all,” Frank Longbottom spoke quietly. “It’s so abrupt and…and…you both thought this was necessary?”

James nodded. He spoke firmly, “Yes, we did.”

“We all know what the prophecy says,” Remus added quietly as he looked on sadly at James before looking past James shoulder and locking eyes with Sirius. He shook his head slowly at Sirius as if to say _don’t._

Frank looked down immediately and then up to Alice. Worry apparent in his eyes. James cursed in his head. He knew how Lily’s and his actions might affect others, how even now Frank might be plotting what he should be doing for Alice but James couldn’t focus on them. Not now and not before. The only thing that he could focus on was doing whatever was necessary to keep Lily safe. She was the only thing that mattered and everyone else judging him, questioning him could…could…well he didn’t care anymore he couldn’t. He was about to say that when Alice interrupted his thoughts.

She spoke softly with fear and regret in her voice, “So you really don’t know where she is? We can’t get a message to her?”

James shook his head while he looked down at the floor, his eyes unfocused. He paced the room and caught Remus’ eye as he walked by. Remus looked worried and rubbed his fingers harshly across his jaw.

“But how will you check in?” Alice asked.

“Oh, this is rich. You’ll love this part,” Sirius spat out as he lurched from the wall finally and made his way back to the group. He sat down in the chair he had vacated earlier, “go ahead and tell them, James.”

James sighed heavily. He had explained this all to Sirius, Remus and Peter that morning. He knew how they felt. How much they disagreed. He put his hands in his pockets again and took a deep breath as he steadied himself.

“The only way for this to work was that I wouldn’t know where she went and I would have no way to contact her. No one will be able to contact her and that’s why she couldn’t tell anyone goodbye. She wanted to, truly she did but we couldn’t risk…we couldn’t take the chance that she could be…delayed. We know there are others that know about the prophecy and there are others that are watching us. All of us.”

He left it at that and didn’t go any deeper. He didn’t want to add that in these dark times could he really trust anyone with her but himself? He knew he could not. He was ashamed to think it. He would have no problem trusting his life with anyone in that room but Lily’s? Maybe before he could have but now, now everything was different. “The plan is that she will live somewhere away from here as a muggle until…well until after.”

“Does she have her wand?” Frank asked.

James nodded. “But that’s the only magical item she has and she won’t use it unless forced otherwise she is living day to day without any magic. We won’t be in contact with each other but she’ll find a way to check the news every few months or so. There’s no set time.  It would only be if she had an opportunity to and felt it was safe to check without compromising her identity.  That way once this is all over she’ll know that it’s safe to return. She’ll be safest this way because there will be no way to trace her. Just one more muggle living amongst millions.”

Alice nodded her head and then looked back up at James before she spoke slowly and quietly, “She could be gone for months then.”

“She could be gone for years,” Sirius corrected angrily as he turned to James and stared hard at him before repeating himself, “she could be gone for years.”

James knew that. Had told himself that countless times while he was debating the decision, while he convinced her she would have to go alone, while they parted. Even after all of those times he had told himself this in his mind to prepare himself it still made him sick to think that he might not see her for so long. Save for summers and holidays he had seen Lily almost every day of his life since he was eleven years old. His stomach churned in protest and his mind went to one of his worst thoughts, one of his worst fears and his heartbeat stuttered over it. His hand went up to his chest as he rubbed deeply across it as if the rubbing would make the pain lessen but it didn’t stop his fear. _What if he didn’t survive and what if yesterday was the last time he saw her?_

Sirius and Remus watched James as he closed his eyes and clutched his chest. The chain with her ring on it hanging loosely from his neck.

\--

_Earlier that day_

“What if someone finds her? She won't have any help!” Sirius raged as he crossed the living room of Godric’s Hollow. 

“I know that! Haunted by the idea of it, had every nightmare imagining it. That's why we didn't wait, why we couldn’t tell anyone. It was only us that knew…it was the only way.  The safest way.” 

"She could be dead right now and you wouldn't even know."

James lunged at him hard knocking them both down and crashing into the side table. They struggled back and forth throwing punches at one another while spitting out angry words. Remus and Peter ran from the kitchen as they quickly pulled them apart.  

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare!" James shouted as he continued to lunge at Sirius but Peter held him back.

“It was rushed! You only just found out she was pregnant. Only known for a couple weeks and you fly off the handle with this! Jumping in blind without thinking this through!” Sirius yelled.

"With good reason! The timing, the prophecy. I can't risk losing her, not at any cost and this was the cost. I knew you would be angry, that you all would be." James calmed down and stood still, Peter dropped his arms from around him. "She was terrified, I was terrified, am terrified!  And you say that to my face." He choked a bit on the last part, shaking the horrible images from his head and then continued, "You have no idea what this is like for me. How tortured I am by being apart from her and now when she's the most vulnerable. Saying goodbye was the hardest thing I’ve done.” He finished and sat on the sofa. His hands ripped through his hair tugging angrily at the strands as he looked down at the floor with his head in his hands.

Sirius stilled and looked out the window for a long moment.  “I shouldn't have said what I did and it's not true. We both know that but that's it isn't it? That's the rub. We didn't get to say goodbye, didn't get to offer our suggestions, didn't get to help. She's just gone and we may never...”

“This wasn't about you. This wasn't your decision to make. We made it together, this is what we chose. What I asked of her! She's my wife and I had to do whatever I thought would keep her the safest and that was this.” 

“And she's our sister! You're our brother. You don't think that...that we think of Lily as our family too. What if...”

“What if you die?” Sirius didn’t respond and the question hung in the air. Remus and Peter stood at the edge of the room waiting. James knew all of their lives were in danger and just as his fear would be that he wouldn’t see her again he knew the others would hold that same fear. He robbed them of their goodbye and he didn’t take it lightly. “I know. I thought of that. She thought of that but I had to be selfish with this. I had to, Padfoot. Nothing can happen to her or...or the baby. I couldn't live with myself.” 

Sirius paused and waited before sitting down beside James. The clock on the mantle ticked by as the hour drew to a close. "We just would have wanted to say goodbye. That's all."


	3. 3

January 22, 1980

One could say that Ivy Clay was a fairly unremarkable young woman. She stood at 5’7 with shoulder length red hair, slightly crooked from a bad haircut she had given herself in an airport. She was a recent inhabitant of an old cottage that sat away from town but by the sea. She held no degree but when pressed had spent time at a small, no name school in Yorkshire, England before packing her bags and heading out into the world. Over the course of a week she had flown from London to Barcelona to Moscow to Beijing to Seattle to Ontario to Quebec. From Quebec she had taken two trains, one bus and a boat to the small Canadian peninsula of Nova Scotia. For four weeks she had been employed as a secretary to the librarian of the local college where she brought a navy sweater with her every day to work.

Some would say that Lily Potter was nothing like Ivy Clay. Where Lily was lively, Ivy was quiet. Where Lily laughed with friends, Ivy ate lunch alone. Where Lily had a husband, Ivy wore no ring on her finger. Lily hadn’t expected to end up in Nova Scotia. That hadn’t been the plan but things change when people don’t have choices and something that once felt impossible can become routine.

Lily closed her journal and sipped from the tea beside her as she rubbed her stomach and the wave of nausea that had troubled her subsided. When she set the cup on the saucer, she stared down at her ring finger and rubbed it slowly as tears pricked her eyes.

Lily hadn’t expected to be doing this alone. James had picked the city for them and a job for himself but he knew those details and she could hear his voice in her head now.

_“You’ll have to change everything. You can’t use what I planned. Go somewhere that I won’t know. Some place you have no connection to. Some place that no one would think to look.”_

_“But how will you find me when this is over?”_

_James stroked her hands. “I won’t be able to find you. You’ll come back but only once he’s gone. No matter how long that is.  I’ll be here, waiting for you,” he whispered softly and then placed a gentle kiss on her forehead._

Lily had expected to know what to do. Top of her class, member of the order but when faced with decisions that needed answers immediately, she faltered. She took multiple flights so as to confuse anyone who might look for her but also because she didn’t know where to go. The original plan was for Ireland, nearby but still far enough away but that wasn’t an option anymore. Lily settled on another location, far away and she would be lying if she said the distance didn’t terrify her but she needed to blend in where she was a nobody, a nameless face amongst hundreds of others and what better place than a college town that no one had ever heard of thousands of miles away from anything Lily had ever known.

She chose Ivy for herself because it meant strong attachment and fidelity. Something that she wanted to hold close to her friends as they fought on without her. But it also meant eternity, wedded love and immortality. Words that held different emotions for her now as she lived separated from James.

She had picked Alistair for James. Defender of man but she also knew that he would have disliked it. She would have called him Ali, teasing him mercilessly but he didn’t get to see the name and he didn’t know hers either and he wasn’t here. Ali and Ivy would never exist in this life together, in this foreign place. Ali was 4000 miles away on another continent. She held his passport in her hand. It had remained in her purse all these weeks. It was the only photo she had of him but he wasn’t here and they had made an agreement.

_“Only your wand. Nothing can link you to me, to our life.”_

A knock sounded at the door and she slipped the passport into her pocket, patted her cheeks and rose from the table. She crossed along the worn, wooden floors to the front door where she unlocked the two locks, the bolt at the bottom and opened it. On the other side stood a woman much shorter than Lily, who hunched over from time and had a white braid of hair tied back with a blue handkerchief and at her feet a cat sat staring up at Lily.

“Greta, good morning. Are you sure you should be out in this weather?” Lily asked as she held the door open and Greta entered along with the cat and a gust of wind that blew a swirl of snowflakes in.

The cottage Lily lived in came with the job well sort of. She had one neighbor, a kind woman named Greta who had become a recluse in her old age. Greta was the librarian, Carol’s, grandmother and Carol had offered the place for rent to Lily along with the job. Technically Greta owned the cottage. It was the old house on the land that had been occupied by her family since the mid-1800’s. A house had been built up the road at and that’s where Greta lived now but the cottage was Greta’s first home. The home where she had been born and where she had started her life together with her husband, Claude, gone now for many years. Greta felt the pull from the old home and often came by the cottage. Passing through the worn-out fence to sit on a fallen tree and think about days long gone.

Lily understood the feeling. How she longed for her own home and would pay any price to be back there, to sit in her own yard with no worries to haunt her.

“Ivy, this weather is nothing for an old woman like me. It’ll get worse later though so I thought it best that I come by early to check in.” She looked around the room probably making note of the sparseness, Lily thought and she turned to observe as well. The cottage had come with some furniture and one painting of the coast that hung on the wall. Lily hadn’t made any changes herself even though she had been there over a month. No new furniture, no added pictures. Nothing to make it a home. The cottage was smaller than where she lived before, smaller than any place she had lived before. Just three small rooms.  An entry way with a fireplace, a couch and table, a place to sleep with a small bed, a bathroom and then the kitchen.

“Hmm…will you stay in today?” Greta asked as she turned back to Lily.

“Yes, no need to go out but I’ll work tomorrow.” Greta nodded and the cat played with a loose thread hanging from Greta’s long sweater.

“How is work?”

“It’s good. I’m really enjoying it,” Lily replied and tried to force a smile but it felt tight on her face and her tone fell flat.

Greta looked her up and down slowly. “And Carol? She’s treating you well?”

“Yes, Carol is wonderful!”

“Have you seen a doctor yet?”

Lily paused. “Pardon?” She asked confused.

Greta nodded down towards Lily’s stomach.

“Oh!” She gasped, surprised. “I hadn’t realized…” She trailed off and looked down at her stomach.

“You’re not showing yet but you hold your stomach a lot. I’ve seen enough pregnancies that I suspected. Where’s the father?”

Lily looked out the window towards the ocean. Thousands of miles across this sea she thought bitterly in answer to Greta’s question but didn’t respond.

“Scoundrel,” Greta bit out and then shook her head.

“No, no it’s not that,” Lily struggled with how to explain. “It’s complicated. He would be here if he could.” Or actually she would be there with him having never stepped on this continent.

Greta only nodded but didn’t meet Lily’s eye as she too looked out over the sea.

“Well regardless, he isn’t here. Do you know when you’re due?”

“Yes, not for some time. Late summer.”

“Well keep out of this cold wind and snow. I should head back before the snow starts to pile up.” She started towards the door.

Lily nodded and followed her. She liked Greta and didn’t know what to make of her knowing she was pregnant and assuming she was unmarried. “Greta, I’ll understand…” she started but didn’t continue, letting her words hang dead in the air.

“Understand what?”

“If you need me to find another place to stay.”

“Humph, of course not. This is your home now. And Ivy, you can make any changes that you want.” She nodded around the room. “I know we left it in a bit of a sad state after all this time but you paint it and pretty it up in any way that you’d like.”

Lily faltered a bit under her gaze. This wasn’t her home, she didn’t want this place to be her home and really any day she might get news of the war being over. It was possible.

“That’s so kind. Thank you.”

 

******

 

_This is your home now._ Greta’s words played over in Lily’s mind as the hours passed and daylight turned to twilight and with-it Lily’s mood shifted as well.

She built a small fire to heat the cold room, a half-eaten apple sat on a plate nearby and her journal remained open on the table. She rubbed her stomach longingly. _Nothing can link you to me._

Lily picked up the poker and adjusted the logs. A burst of heat escaped from the fireplace and warmed her face uncomfortably so. She wound the navy sweater around her tighter and pulled the passport from its pocket. She held it longingly, touching the photo lightly before it slipped from her fingers into the fire below. She watched as flames licked the edges and then took it, distorting the pages. It held open to James’ photo for several seconds before it was gone and only ash remained.

Snow fell down in heavy waves outside but Lily could hear the real waves from the ocean beating against the rocks at the shore. A sad sea hymn, melodic in its anger.

_This is your home now._


	4. Chapter 4

December 14, 1979

_“This is your home now!”_

James could hear his mother’s voice now years later as he stood in the living room of the cottage. The memories washed over him as the sun began to set and he waited for his friends.

_She held his little hand in her larger one. She brought his tiny fingers up to her mouth and kissed them then bent down and fixed the hair on his head that always stuck up in every direction no matter how hard she tried to tame it. She laughed and kissed his cheek. It was their first day at the cottage and James was only a little boy then. She picked him up and swung him around as they danced in the living room and he laughed. His father tripping over a box as he came through the front door joined them and they all danced, happily together._

He and Lily had danced here too. On their first day as husband and wife, they had danced for hours in this room.

_“I love you,” She spoke quietly as she touched his face and threaded her fingers through his hair._

_He kissed her back softly and pulled her tighter against him. Feeling the white satin beneath his fingers, he rubbed her back slowly._

_She kissed him more deeply. “We’re going to be so happy.”_

Sheets covered the furniture and precious items were packed away in boxes in the attic now. Things that had belonged to her and him. Things that had made up their life together.

He had been working on it all day. Packing everything away. All their photos, things left behind by his parents and mementos Lily cherished.

_“I’m pregnant.”_

He shut his eyes and fisted his hands in his pockets remembering all those times that were so far from his grasp now as he looked around the room. He picked up a frame and watched as he and Lily danced in it. He put it in his coat and walked out of the house, locking the door behind him. He stopped and rested his hand on the door.

When he turned Sirius, Remus and Peter stood waiting for him.

******

February 5, 1980

_This is your home._ James thought bitterly as he looked around at the flat, he had been sharing with Sirius for the last two months as he went room by room picking up trash they had left for weeks. It was small, dirty and really only big enough for one person. Neither of them had the time or inclination to do dishes or take out trash. Not when every day was a lesson in either futility as they waited for information or a lesson in strength as they took that information into battle with them. The last two weeks had also not seen them in England. A tip came through by way of Remus that led them and several other order members to Romania and a possible location on Voldemort.

The tip hadn’t panned out though and they had spent weeks in the cold forests of the lonely country searching for what had only turned up errant followers and low spirits. James tore his hands through his hair as the disappointment washed over him.

James had stayed at Godric’s Hollow for all of a week without Lily before making his decision. Once they had graduated and been married, Godric’s Hollow had made sense. It was on land that James’ parents had owned and very few people knew of it or were familiar with the village. What better place for them to seek refuge as they fought against the dark lord during the day and were able to come back to the cozy cottage at night far enough away from the nightmares that were being birthed deep in the wizarding world.

But with Lily gone the cottage felt cold. It was like when he visited before he had taken her that first day to show her. He had cleaned up the space as best he could but the furniture was dusty and moldy, spiderwebs clung to corners and even though there was ample furniture in the rooms, the place just felt empty.

Like now...the furniture was there and their pictures danced on the walls, their bed laid unmade upstairs but they were only possessions. Without a person to sit in a room with a blanket tucked around them or lay in a bed beckoning their lover, a room couldn’t be cozy and a cottage couldn’t be a home. It was almost as if the cottage had gone back in time and it sat here now with James standing in the middle as just an empty space like it had before with pieces of wood sitting as they waited for someone to come back and use them.

That’s how James felt. Like he was waiting. He had so much to do, so much to accomplish but all their leads ended nowhere. He had to shake himself out of this, he had to move forward. By staying in the cottage, he was letting the cold and the dread seep into his bones and get into his head, playing tricks on him. That first night he woke he reached out for her but found only a cold sheet in his grasp. The next day he ran downstairs thinking he had heard her laugh but there was nothing. Ghosts haunting him he thought angrily.

Every day there was only one goal, defeat him. That’s all. So, he knew he had to leave the cottage behind. Escape from his depressing thoughts and put all of his focus on this one thing. Lest he stay he might end up like the furniture, a cold, dead piece waiting.

******

_“Are they gone?” Remus asked as he made his way through the front door, dropping his coat and hat on a chair. He had just come from meeting with other order members._

_“Yes, I only just got back myself.”_

_“Is who gone?” Peter asked as he entered behind Remus. He shook the snow from his hair and jacket._

_“Lily’s sister, Petunia, and her husband. I obliviated them and had them leave England for a bit.” James responded as he stood watching his friends. Sirius had arrived minutes before Remus and Peter and sat the far corner chair. “I promised Lily I would get Petunia away from here. She didn’t want anyone to go to her sister’s thinking they knew anything.”_

_Remus and Peter nodded solemnly but said nothing as they moved further into the room. Remus began towards the kitchen._

_“I’m going to leave the cottage and live somewhere closer to the order,” James spoke softly._

_“Why?” Remus looked on worriedly. His eyes cut to Sirius. It had been long days since James and Sirius fought but the room was still tense when they were together like a cloud that wouldn’t shift._

_“I can’t stay here. Not with her gone.” James picked up a red blanket from a chair and held it as he looked out the window. Snow fell down in heavy drifts blanketing the bottom of the windowpane._

_Sirius nodded. The last thing he wanted to do was put his friend through anymore grief than he already had and worried what this toll would take on him when only days away from Lily leaving, he seemed so close to the edge. And likely had much farther to go still. “Stay at the flat with me then.”_

_James turned towards Sirius. They had rarely spoken in the last week unless necessary. James had re-lived those words dark words many times in the days since Sirius had apologized and he had forgiven him. Of course, he had. He understood in some ways how Sirius and all of them must have felt having found out that Lily was gone. But the words nevertheless still haunted him._ _"She could be dead right now and you wouldn't even know." He shut his eyes._

_James nodded. “Yes, I’ll do that. Thanks, mate.” He smiled and placed the blanket back on the chair as he moved away from the living room and into the kitchen._

******

James picked up the red blanket and folded it once before placing it on the back of the sofa. He continued around the table as he picked up food containers and pitched them the bin he carried.

A loud bang at the chimney turned his head and he reached for his wand. Remus came through the floo with Peter following after him and then Sirius.

“We’ve been researching something and found some notes that are interesting,” Remus spoke quickly as he came to the table and threw several papers down. Sirius collapsed in the chair.

James moved around Sirius outstretched feet. “What? What have you learned?”

“Well…” Remus paused. “Have you ever heard of a Horcrux?”

 


End file.
